‘I Don’t Want To Join The Bandwagon’

‘I Don’t Want To Join The Bandwagon’

My dear pals, I need to share this story with you. It made me grows up. Please read along with me.

On a fine Saturday morning, I was walking with my friends along the street in my serene neighborhood. Then we came across a very beautiful damsel. My, she was so cool and she’d got the right statistics!  My eyes nearly popped out, she was so endowed. I know my friends also liked what they saw but we all just passed her by without voicing out our thoughts.

My friend Wale liked her so much that he ensured we strolled past her house every Saturday, until finally after about one month of perambulating, we finally summed up the courage to chat her up. Her voice was so angelic when she told us her name was Funke, that she attended a private girl’s secondary school in Lekki. She was well mannered and soft spoken.

Wale started chatting her up and she also seemed to like him, so we all backed out of the chase.

Wale actually like her but unknown to us he was being pressurized by another group of friends into ‘getting down to the basics’ with her. After a few weeks of going out with Funke, Wale realized he couldn’t get down to the basics with her. Funke told him she was a virgin and intended staying that way until she gets married. Wale didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer until Funke was forced to break up the friendship with him.

This made Wale so angry that he planned to get even with her. Without telling our group of friends, he planned with a group of notorious boys in our area; they kidnapped Funke and gang raped her. He carried out his plan before he informed us. I and our other three friends were so disgusted that we asked Wale to stop coming to our houses. Two days after the incident, trouble erupted in our area, Funke’s dad reported to the police and all Wale’s friends were arrested including me. When we got to the station, we were asked to make statements. My friends and I made our statements, but we were remanded at the police station until our parent came to bail us.

Hmm, as for Wale, he was asked to produce the other guys and together they were charged to court. Funke’s dad said they must be responsibility for their action.

When I got home from the police station, I got thinking, what could have prompted wale to bow to the pressure of such bad boys and gang rape an innocent girl like Funke? What if Funke was my sister, how would I have felt? What if any of those guys was HIV positive, wouldn’t they have infected her? A lot of ‘what ifs’ came to my mind, but thank God, Funke’s parents were supportive. They ensured she had medical attention and also took prophylaxis to prevent transmission of HIV, and they supported her to face up to her antagonists, and hurray, Funke emerged the victor and not the victim.

Rape is violation of human rights; a violation of woman’s right to her bodily integrity, and a violation of the Nigerian law, which is punishable under the Nigerian criminal code section 357.

Oh my, I don’t ever want to join the bandwagon of rapist who thinks they can violate other people’s bodies by having non-consensual sexual relations with them. It’s the height of bestiality. Nah nah nah…